Unraveled by Kate Jarvik Birch

Author:Kate Jarvik Birch
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: genetic modification;dystopian;sci-fi;teen;women’s rights;romance
Publisher: Entangled Publishing, LLC
Published: 2018-02-09T16:00:00+00:00

Thirteen

“Elise…” My stomach flipped. I knew I could trust her. That wasn’t why my heart had begun to hammer. I knew she would tell me everything if it might set Penn free, but I was afraid the answer she was going to give me wouldn’t be the one I needed. “It’s about those files,” I said, “the ones the congressman—”

“Can you stop calling him the congressman?” Elise interrupted. “He loved being called that. It makes him sound so important, and I just… It bothers me.”

“Oh. Of course.” I paused. “The files your husband has been blackmailing people with.”

She cringed. “How about we just call him John.”

“Fine. John.”

Elise nodded, but she didn’t look pleased. “I already told you,” she said. “I don’t know where he keeps them. I’ve looked. Believe me. I’ve searched his office a dozen times. I even made a copy of the key to his office in Washington and searched it, too, but there’s nothing there. You’ve got to understand that if John has made a point to hide something, he’s hidden it well.”

“On the night we met with Erik, he mentioned something.” I hesitated. This was the information I needed, and yet I was still scared of her answer. “Have you ever heard John mention the Catskills?”

Elise snorted. “Ella, you can’t live in the Northeast and not mention the Catskills.”

My stomach sank. “But that doesn’t mean it’s a bad tip.”

“No, you’re right,” Elise said. “I didn’t mean to dismiss you. What exactly did Erik say?”

“Just that he heard rumors that the congressman—” I stopped myself. “I mean, John—kept files on a server in the Catskills.”

She sat silent with the information, and I picked nervously at my sleeve. Finally, she spoke. “There’s the old hunting cabin John bought after Penn was born. His dad used to take him duck hunting when he was a kid, and he said he wanted to have that with Penn. It never made sense to me, the guns, shooting things, you know.”

I cringed at the thought of Penn killing animals. He’d never even mentioned it to me.

“They only went a few times,” Elise said. “They’d stay a couple of days, rough it without running water and heat. I only had to go up there once to know it wasn’t for me. I don’t know why anyone would choose to freeze all night in an unheated shack and pee in a dirt hole, but the boys seemed to like it. The last time they went, Penn was ten. Up until then they only shot at old cans and targets, but John finally decided he was old enough for a real hunt. They came home a day early. Penn’s eyes were red and puffy from crying. He wouldn’t tell me what happened. Just went up to his room and stayed there for a day and a half. Apparently he shot a squirrel. It fell out of the tree, but it wasn’t dead yet, and John wanted him to finish the job. He couldn’t. Poor kid.

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